The present invention is related to a method for continuously processing organic material which ferments and composts effectively and continuously organic matter such as left over food or raw food waste and an apparatus for conducting the same method.
Conventionally, a variety of food waste processing apparatus which compost raw food waste are known; thus, a small size apparatus for home use which is open at the bottom part and buried in the grounds, to which fermenting germ is added to ferment raw food waste by the germ, a middle size apparatus which has crushing/stirring apparatus inside thereof, or a large size apparatus for industrial use which has independent crushing apparatus, stirring apparatus and fermenting tank. However, the small size apparatus of the prior raw food waste processing apparatus has only a small proceeding ability and can fail to ferment caused by lack of temperature, and has a shortcoming of resulting in decomposition and infesting maggots. The middle size one has necessity for the capacity of the fermenting tank to become five to ten times bigger than its proceeding ability of raw food waste which yields everyday. It also has a shortcoming of insufficient fermentation caused by additionally supplying raw food waste into the fermenting tank. Such supplying is usually conducted without taking account of microorganism""s activation inside of the fermenting tank. Further, the large size one has a shortcoming of necessity of man management which results in high facility and maintenance costs.
Accordingly, for example, business facilities yielding a huge amount of raw food waste such as meal supplying center and restaurants have a problem of too much burden for self-processing by establishing such large size raw food waste processing apparatus. So, these business facilities generally rely on specialized processing traders or collection of hog raisers who use the waste to feed pigs.
But recently less leftover food is used to feed pigs, and hog raisers themselves are decreased in large numbers. With the decrease of these collecting traders, it has been more and more difficult to proceed raw food waste fast, and moreover new problems related to proceeding raw food waste have emerged.
For example, when raw food waste is incinerated, many problems occur. For example, a problem of dregs after the incineration, an offensive odor at incinerator and its surrounding areas, a problem of environment contamination such as flies and smoke, and a social problem promoting production of dioxin, a poisonous substance because raw food waste prevents temperature from rising in incinerator.
The aim of the present invention is to solve these problems of the prior raw food waste processing apparatus. Further, it is to provide a method for continuously processing organic material and an apparatus for conducting the same method in which steps from crushing organic material such as raw food waste to composting are automated and continuously proceeded in the best fermentation conditions without interruption. With the invention, more processing ability than capacity of fermenting tank can be obtained, facility and running costs dramatically decreases, and it is capable of being adopted from small size to large size ones.
The present invention solving said problems provides a method for continuously processing organic material, which comprises the steps of:
jointly disposing at least three fermenting tanks in series with each having at least one stirring apparatus and at least one temperature detector;
supplying a predetermined amount of proceeding material into the first fermenting tank, said processing material being made by stirring and crushing fermentation promoting agent in which microorganism is implanted in advance within organic material such as raw food waste;
detecting temperature in each of the fermenting tanks and controlling amount of the half fermented material to be transferred from the fermenting tank positioned at upper stream to the fermenting tank positioned at lower stream such that the temperature in each of said fermenting tanks maintains at temperature of xe2x80x9cfinal phase of fermentation heat rising periodxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cconstant temperature periodxe2x80x9d; and
discharging composted organic material from the last fermenting tank properly when the processing material has been composted.
At least three fermenting tanks are disposed in series so fermentation progress of each of the fermenting tanks proceeds evenly while amount of the half fermented material to be transferred from the fermenting tank positioned at upper stream to the fermenting tank positioned at lower stream is adjusted or controlled to maintain temperature of each of the fermenting tanks at temperature of xe2x80x9cfinal phase of fermentation heat rising periodxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cconstant temperature periodxe2x80x9d, the organic material is composted in short time by using fermenting microorganism activation efficiently. Accordingly, the organic material is continuously fermented.
The invention described in claim 2 resides in a method for continuously processing organic material as stated in claim 1, the method further including fermentation preparing step prior to said step of supplying a predetermined amount of processing material into the first fermenting tank, said fermentation preparing step including supplying a predetermined amount of the processing material into each of the fermenting tanks and fermenting it so that temperature in each of the fermenting tanks reaches at temperature of xe2x80x9cfinal phase of fermentation heat rising periodxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cconstant temperature periodxe2x80x9d.
When preparing to start the method of the present invention, a certain amount of the processing material made of the stirred and crushed fermentation promoting agent and organic material is supplied into each of the fermenting tanks and, by fermenting it, the temperature in each of the fermenting tanks reaches at temperature of xe2x80x9cfinal phase of fermentation heat rising periodxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cconstant temperature periodxe2x80x9d. Except the start-up time, this fermentation preparing step in each of the fermenting tanks is not necessary because the processing material which has fermented to a certain level of fermentation is supplied to the fermenting tank successively, and accordingly, the time needed for fermentation process becomes short.
The invention described in claim 3 resides in a method for continuously processing organic material as stated in claim 1 or 2, wherein said step of supplying a predetermined amount of the processing material comprises a step of randomly dumping the organic material which yields everyday as household raw waste into a high capacity tank in which the fermentation promoting agent has been provided, stirring and crushing it, and the supplying step is conducted under the condition where the processing material is half fermented to reach at the temperature of xe2x80x9cfinal phase of fermentation heat rising periodxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cconstant temperature periodxe2x80x9d.
The high capacity tank, which is separately disposed from the fermenting tanks, is provided to be randomly supplied with the organic material yielding everyday to stir and crush it, so the organic material is fermented or half fermented to a certain level. Composting step takes place after the processing material is supplied in the fermenting tank where temperature management is carried out, so failure in the fermentation does not occur.
The invention described in claim 4 resides in a method for continuously processing organic material as stated in claim 3, wherein the high capacity tank includes a storage tank body in which the organic material yielding everyday is dumped and an organic material dumping apparatus which the organic material is dumped into the storage tank body while it drains water, and inside of the storage tank body are provided a stirring pipe with which crushing holes are formed and a stirring screw located in the stirring pipe which sends up the accumulated organic material on the bottom of the storage tank body and scatters some through the crushing holes of the stirring pipe and other through the upper end of the stirring pipe into the storage tank body again.
The organic material supplying apparatus first removes water to a certain level from the organic material to be proceeded, and the drained organic material is supplied into the storage tank body. In the storage tank body the fermenting microorganism is self-reproducing successively and it is stirred and crushed with the supplied organic material. The stirring screw is rotated in the stirring pipe, and sends up the accumulated organic material on the bottom of the storage tank body into the stirring pipe. The stirring screw pushes out some through the crushing holes of the stirring pipe with a certain amount of pressure and other through the upper end of the stirring pipe to scatter into the storage tank body again. By repeating or continuing this step, the processing material is mixed and crushed thoroughly and in the meantime, half fermented as time passed.
The second aspect of the present invention is an apparatus for continuously processing organic material, the apparatus comprises:
at least three fermenting tanks disposed in series to each other, each of the fermenting tanks having at least one stirring apparatus and at least one temperature detector;
a tank for stirring and crushing fermentation promoting agent in which fermenting microorganism is implanted and organic material such as raw food waste, and thereafter supplying a predetermined amount of the processing material of the half fermented material, temperature of which being at xe2x80x9cfinal phase of fermentation heat rising periodxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cconstant temperature periodxe2x80x9d, into the first fermenting tank;
transferring conveyer which transfers the half fermented material from the fermenting tank positioned at upper stream to the fermenting tank positioned at lower stream and can adjust amount of the processing material to be transferred;
a controller which detects temperature in each of the fermenting tanks and adjust amount of the half fermented material to be transferred from the fermenting tank positioned at upper stream to the fermenting tank positioned at lower stream such that the temperature in each of the fermenting tanks maintains at temperature of xe2x80x9cfinal phase of fermentation heat rising periodxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cconstant temperature period; and
a discharging apparatus which discharges the composted organic material from the last fermenting tank properly when the processing material has been composted.